Second Youth Commission whistleblower terminated
Case manager had a felony on his record.
By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, May 12, 2007
A second high-profile whistle-blower at the Texas Youth Commission has been cashiered.
This one, for a felony conviction more than three decades ago.
 Anthony Mikulastik
Former case manager accused bosses of ignoring abuse allegations. |
The dismissal of Anthony Mikulastik, a case manager at the Marlin Orientation and Assessment Unit, came just days after he publicly accused his one-time bosses of ignoring allegations of sex abuse three years ago at the West Texas State School — a year before they had claimed they first knew.
"Without a doubt, it's retaliation," Mikulastik said in a phone interview. "I haven't had so much as a speeding ticket in years, since that conviction for burglary in 1972. I was 19 then. I'm 56 now."
In addition, Mikulastik said, "I disclosed everything to (Youth Commission officials) when I was hired in 1996, and they said it was not a problem."
Youth Commission spokesman Jim Hurley said Mikulastik's termination had nothing to do with the public accusations he made.
"Absolutely not. No one cares (Mikulastik) talked with The Dallas Morning News," he said. "We thoroughly vetted each case where someone had a felony record, and that process has been going on for some time."
On May 1, the newspaper reported that Mikulastik and Bill Parker, a former Marlin case worker, had alerted their supervisors to allegations of sexual abuse of male students at the West Texas and other youth lockups in 2003. The Morning News also reported that when supervisors failed to act, Mikulastik and Parker mailed detailed reports of the allegations to Youth Commission officials in Austin.
Mikulastik said he was terminated May 7.
Top commission officials have said that they knew nothing about the sex abuse allegations until late 2004 or early 2005, about the time that a Texas Ranger launched a criminal investigation following a tip by a volunteer math tutor at the West Texas lockup, Marc Slattery. After questions arose in February over why the allegations of abuse and of an official cover-up were not investigated or prosecuted for two years, Slattery received notice that he was being terminated as a volunteer. Youth Commission officials at the time denied retaliation.
In Mikulastik's case, records show, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for breaking into a radio station in Hopkins County in East Texas in January 1972.
At least twice in the past two decades, state records show, the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended a pardon for Mikulastik. The governor did not grant one either time.
A Youth Commission policy put into effect April 17 says people who have been convicted of "a felony of any kind" cannot work for the agency or serve as a volunteer, but it also says convictions do not include "an adjudication of guilt . . . that has been subsequently expunged or pardoned under the authority of a state or federal official."
In an appeal that Mikulastik filed with the state Office of Administrative Hearings, he contends that Youth Commission officials, in effect, pardoned him administratively when they approved him for employment in 1996.
According to the appeal, Mikulastik is seeking to be reinstated.
Hurley declined to discuss specifics in the appeal.
"All we're saying is that people who have been convicted of felonies should not be part of the juvenile justice system in this state," Hurley said.
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